"The ability to update quickly and easily on the website makes all the difference"
Introduction
Ruth and her husband Dave took over Trees Please! – a company which sells baby trees as gifts with an emotional connection – because of their conviction that the planet needs more trees... and Trees Please! also needed a technology partner who was as vested in the business as they were.
The problem
“We took over a website that was a ‘tired’ brochure site. We chose Datum Connect because we wanted a solution that reflected our values and which gave us control over the content on our site,” says Ruth.
Trees Please! also wanted a company that was prepared to grow with them. Part of the challenge was having a website which could keep up with seasonal changes in supply, and had a facility to update images easily.
In 2006 Dave passed away and in 2008 Ruth let her tourism job to concentrate on developing the business further. The key to this was recognising that the tree gifts needed to be more useful while appealing to a broader market.
The solution
“I started working with other small New Zealand companies to create add-on product gifts, such as gardener’s kits which included soap and hand cream and gardening tools. Because we are continually expanding our product range we needed a site that was flexible and one to which images and information could be easily added.
“Good images are really important to our business, and the ability to update them quickly and easily on the website makes all the difference.”
Trees Please! recently added (still to go live) the ability for customers to personalise gifts like a gardener’s tote containing a tree, with accessories of their choice.
“With Datum Connect we developed a website that is easy for customers to navigate and which offers a simple shopping experience,” says Ruth.
Now Trees Please! is able to efficiently update their site and is looking at the option for integrating this with accounting and stock systems.
The result
Facilities like the newsletter and search engine optimisation through Datum Connect have enabled Trees Please! to double sales – and the company plans to double them again.
“Clients comment that it is a really good site and the newsletter facility has won us a lot of repeat business. Datum Connect has been very progressive and forward thinking in helping us introduce new things. Their tutorials make it easy to do things yourself – once it’s set-up, you can go in and play around,” says Ruth.
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